Hello men, This is my first post,
Well I got her home and started to check it all out and found the starter don't engage all the time, although the solenoid clicks! Problem is I can't get at the solenoid or starter without moving the engine. Also I've found there are no grease fittings on the mower deck spindles. Wonder why JD didn't think of that? The power steering cylinder is leaking Little from the front seal, but I can live with that I guess!
The previous owner kept it outside and it looks like squirrels and mice were the last residents to occupy the 318.
Has anyone ever changed the starter on this model? I also noticed that JD has a newer wiring kit for this kind of starter problem, but until I check the solenoid and starter, I'll just put that on the back burner for now.

The deck spindles use sealed bearings, no greasing necessary. Pull the deck off, remove the belt, and the cover, and spin one blade at a time. If it feels rough, or makes noise, tear it apart and replace the bearings on the bad spindle/s. Just a bit of grease in between parts during re-assembly is necessary.

Hi, Bigfoot. I had an STX38 that had a similar problem. Sometimes the solenoid would click & it would start, others it would click but there wasn't enough juice to turn the engine, still others the solenoid wouldn't even click. It acted like the battery was dead or dying. The problem was in the safety interlock circuit. The switches all corrode & build up resistance over time. The result is a low voltage at the solenoid. The good news is that there is a mod to fix that.

you have to pull the engine to get the starter out . if it works some of the time and when it doesnt you hear the solenoid than the starter may be fine . the solenoid is under the battery tray i believe . pulling that starter would be the verrrrrrrry last thing id do .

Congrats on the 318. It could be that the ignition switch is faulty or some other interlock switch or even the wiring has a bad connection somewhere that is keeping the solenoid from getting enough voltage to operate. Heres a schematic that may help.

Welcome Bigfoot to GTtalk , My 318 was doing the same thing one time and I started taking things off to " replace the starter " until I was taking the ground strap bolt on the head the bolt was corroded tight but wasn't making a good connection at least I didn't get the whole engine off lol , Al

Hello gentlemen, I looked at the starter, as much of it as I could, which wasn't much. Being unfamiliar with the wiring and all, that is, I pulled the engine out set it on the work bench and removed the starter. Put it into my vice and hooked a battery up to the solenoid.
Well to make a long story with the aches and pains short, it worked perfect after trying it 30-40 times sigh :-( So you men were right, it's in the wiring, switches, etc. I read about a bulletin, put out by John Deere, where they make a wiring kit which is supposed to eliminate this problem. seems there isn't enough voltage getting to the solinoid and starter to spin it. Don't know if this is the case, but I'll check this out by testing the voltage drop at different points. Thanks you for the wiring diagram! and for all the input, this forum is great!!

Love this JD 318, it has a few quirks but so do I. I've put the engine back in today and I'm installing the relay kit part number from John Deere AM107421 to eliminate the no start conditions. The mower deck had some bad blades in it, one of which was bent like a hump back camel. I've ordered 3 new blades, with some paint she should be one handsome machine, like they've said, nothing runs like a deere.

JD's kit is virtually the same as the relay 'fix' you alluded to earlier. If you have wire and terminals laying around, the relay (common auto part) is about 4 or 5 bucks. The JD kit is $25? or so. If you have to buy wire, fuse and holder, and terminals, the JD kit is barely more expensive than buying all the parts. What the homebrew kit does is put a full 12 volts to the solenoid. It still gets the signal to start from the ignition, but doesn't rely on it for the power that has been run through neutral safety switch, the seat safety switch, the brake interlock, and the ignition. However, all of those safeties need to be in working order (or bypassed correctly) in order for the relay trick to work.